Southern California -- this just in

Vivid look at how Orange County fared in the Great Depression

June 14, 2009 | 11:10
am

Even during the height of the Great Depression, the poor in Laguna Beach could grab some lobster from an ocean still brimming with sea life. In Brea, beef was too expensive, but some families took to eating rabbit stew. That's just two of the revealing anecdotes from the Orange County Register's fascinating multimedia examination of the Great Depression in Orange County.

Mixing video, interviews, old documents and photos, the project looks at how the depression affected people and institutions -- the family that owned the Bank of Balboa (victim of a bank run) as well as Laguna's Impressionist painters (who exchanged paintings for food).